Engaging Mattershttp://www.artsjournal.com/engage
Doug Borwick on vibrant arts and communitiesWed, 12 Dec 2018 07:00:31 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.124810239Listen vs. Tellhttp://www.artsjournal.com/engage/2018/12/listen-vs-tell/
http://www.artsjournal.com/engage/2018/12/listen-vs-tell/#commentsWed, 12 Dec 2018 07:00:31 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/engage/?p=5471Over a year ago I began presented a somewhat tongue-in-cheek means of differentiating among two vastly different styles of approaching sales, audience development, audience engagement, and community engagement–the means by which we connect with the public. It was rooted in the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, the “tell” and “interact” versions of the internet.

In sharing the concept with people I realized that basing it on Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 was confusing since Web 1.0/2.0 are not universally recognized and, to be honest, are more than a bit geeky. I revised the presentation around the true essence of the matter: telling and listening.

So here, as we all break for the Holidays, is the new version. (My coding skills are far less than excellent, so a prettier version of this can be found on pp. 2-3 of this document.)

In the past, it has been common for arts organizations to adopt an “If we present it, they will come” attitude in which they simply told people about what was happening and assumed someone would respond. But in a world where the consumer is far less predisposed to “buy” the arts than they once were, we need to build relationships with those we hope to be our supporters. We do this by listening.

The charts that follow present a comparison of how this might work in the “We Tell” and “We Listen” scenarios.

We TellSpoiler: Not the way we should be doing business!

Sales

Audience Development

Audience Engagement

Community Engagement

●This is what’s happening.

●Buy a ticket.

●This is what’s happening.

●This seems to us like a reason you might be interested.

●Buy a ticket.

●This is what’s happening.

●This seems to us like a reason you might be interested.

●Here’s something we think is worthwhile/relevant to you about it.

●Buy a ticket.

●Get a grant

●Find some poor people

●Tell them why what’s happening is good for them

●Be surprised when they don’t show up

It does not take much imagination to understand why one-way communication has very limited success. Two-way conversations–dialogue–should be the default mode for our interactions with the public. Something like this:

We Listen

Sales

Audience Development

Audience Engagement

Community Engagement

●This is what’s happening.

●This is why it’s going to be worth your time and money.*

●Buy a ticket.

●This is what’s happening.

●This is why it’s going to be worth your time and money.*

●This seems like a reason you might be especially interested.*

●Buy a ticket.

●This is what’s happening.

●This is why it’s going to be worth your time and money.*

●This seems like a reason you might be especially interested.*

●Here’s something that might make this even more worthwhile/relevant to you.*

●Buy a ticket.

Step 1

●Pleased to meet you.

●Tell me about yourself.

●This is what we do.

Step 2

●If we do [this thing*], will you help us make it better/be successful?

]]>http://www.artsjournal.com/engage/2018/12/listen-vs-tell/feed/15471Case Studieshttp://www.artsjournal.com/engage/2018/12/case-studies/
http://www.artsjournal.com/engage/2018/12/case-studies/#respondWed, 05 Dec 2018 07:00:21 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/engage/?p=5437The Community Engagement Training offered by ArtsEngaged is also preparing new trainers. As a culminating part of their work, they prepare a case study critiquing a project they know well. Here are the first four. To see the full case study, click on the links.

A successful, on-going project between a major symphony orchestraand the city’s African-American communities

Classical Roots is an uplifting concert celebrating the richly diverse African American musical experience, with the power of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Bringing together 150 singers from churches throughout the region, the Classical Roots Community Mass Choir (CRCMC) prepares over a 10-12 week period with the Classical Roots resident conductor, William Caldwell. The culminating concert takes place in Cincinnati Music Hall with the full Cincinnati Symphony & Pops Orchestra led by conductor John Morris Russell. (from CSO website) [See more]

A major performing venue partners with an Alzheimer’s support organization

Segerstrom Center for the Artsby Jason Holland

A few years ago, my organization launched a new, discrete Community Engagement department and placed me at the helm. One of the first programs I was assigned to launch was our Center Without Boundaries program – aka community partnerships. Center Without Boundaries establishes civic partnerships with local non-arts organizations working in communities we want to engage and helps them address their specific goals. “Where do we start?” was a common first question from colleagues and board members. I decided to focus in two areas: organizations in the health services sector and organizations primarily serving the Hispanic community in our County. (currently constitutes 34% of our County’s population and largely underserved)

By noting some of the health services organizations with whom we shared board members, Alzheimer’s Orange County came to my attention. Knowing what benefits the arts can provide individuals living in various stages of dementia and Alzheimer’s, I requested a meeting with the CEO of the organization. We discussed at length the goals of his organization and found many ways that we, as an arts organization, could support and deepen the impact of the work they were doing. That was the beginning of our partnership work with Alzheimer’s Orange County. [See more]

A growing partnership: Cincinnati Arts Association and the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition

Urban Appalachian Showcaseby Kathleen Riemenschneider

The project was to assist in providing two performances (one for schools and another for the public) in association with the Appalachian Studies Association’s (ASA) annual conference, which was held in Cincinnati April 5-8, 2018. The 2018 ASA conference was the first time the conference had been held at a location outside of the Appalachian region. Cincinnati was selected because it has cultural ties to the Appalachian region through immigration and a community organization that supports the Appalachian culture in the Greater Cincinnati area—Urban Appalachian Community Coalition (UACC). UACC wanted to showcase local talent at the conference and for the community. Since most of the musicians who played in the performances would also be attending the conference, the school performance was scheduled a few weeks before the conference on February 21, 2018. The public performance was incorporated into the schedule of the conference on Saturday, April 7. [See more]

A productive partnership: Sidewalk Film Festival and Shout LGBTQ Film Festival–Brimingham, AL

Shout LGBTQ Film Festival: Birmingham, ALby Webb Robertson

The subject of this case study is the Shout LGBTQ Film Festival in Birmingham, Alabama. Shout features films that are thematically of interest to the LGBTQ community. Shout began in 2006 as a stand-alone event, coordinated and managed by the Sidewalk Film Festival. In 2010, Shout became a sub-festival under the umbrella of the Sidewalk Film Festival. Shout takes place during the Sidewalk Film Festival. [See more]

Last time, I mentioned the idea of “small wins.” It’s a common concept in change management discussions and a fairly self-evident one. Still, I’ve been struck by the number of community engagement professionals leading organizational transformation to community engagement who have cited it as a critical factor in the process. These mini pilot projects developed jointly with new community partners lay the groundwork for bigger things, establish trust and credibility, and, mentioned as often as anything else, excite staff and board members of the arts organization who did not participate in producing them. Seeing a room full of community members enthused about something that the arts organization has helped put together makes community engagement real and goes a long way to demonstrating why it is so important. Another commonly cited benefit is the buzz they can create through media or simple word of mouth that piques the curiosity of funders.

I am indebted to Jason Holland, VP for Community Engagement at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA and a new ArtsEngaged CET Trainer, for reminding me of this. He has generously offered the following as examples and inspiration:

I found it was important when launching pilot community engagement programs to get some ‘quick wins’ early on. I know this may sound antithetical to the process that is so important in sustainable, quality community engagement, but when there are detractors around you who may be looking for this work to fail, it’s important to deliver quick wins to begin to paint a picture of what the future of our work in the community might look like. Photos and video from these quick wins are critical. Combined, these assets help the drum beat begin. Now maybe we can wrap our brains about who this mysterious ‘community’ is and what working with them might FEEL like.

Small wins are not too dissimilar from quick wins but they can happen later in the journey. I have recently had a small win while working with a community organization with whom I needed to build trust and invest time. In our first year together they weren’t quite ready to activate any program or events together. No problem! But this year I just kept checking back and making sure they knew we were here and ready to work when they needed us. Low and behold, they came knocking on our door with an idea they wanted our help with. We were happy to roll up our sleeves and pitch in. Our pilot effort was small – a “one off” – but critical in demonstrating that we were there to support their goals and that we would uphold our end of the work. After that small win with them, ideas and excitement began swirling around the next steps together. I can see that we will be doing more together later this year and that was only possible after that small win gave us all a shared success on which to build!

By definition, small wins (and quick wins) are inexpensive and low risk. They won’t all be wildly successful but even the ones that are not provide experience in working with communities, lessons about what worked and what didn’t, and put the organization on record as serious about working with communities.

ArtsEngaged is pleased to introduce a new resource for engagement practitioners. We are making available the content of Understanding Engagement, Unit 1 of our Community Engagement Training course. The Unit is divided into two sections. The first concentrates on definitions and principles of effective community engagement practice. The second addresses objections to community engagement, some of the reasons it is so important to the future of our industry, and how a community engagement focus can realign the mission of arts organizations for a sustainable future without losing any of the essence of our work.

We encourage people to use this resource freely and to share it with colleagues. It would be particularly appropriate for study groups or as a means to introduce people to the basic concepts critical to community engagement.

If you do make use of it, we would love to hear from you about how you used it, questions/suggestions, and observations about the application of the material and the concepts to your work. To do so, email us at CET@artsengaged.com.

Engage!

Doug

]]>5452Funding Engagementhttp://www.artsjournal.com/engage/2018/10/funding-engagement/
Wed, 31 Oct 2018 06:00:39 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/engage/?p=5431In the relatively near future I will be facilitating a Community Engagement Network conversation addressing the topic of “Funding Engagement.” (To join the network, click here. If you are not Facebook friendly, email us at CEN@artsengaged.com) I get questions on this topic frequently and always have to gird myself before responding. So here is what I try to bear in mind in answering the questions:

If you have to have funding before you can begin community engagement work, you are not prepared for it. At a bare minimum community engagement involves getting to know new people/communities. That is not an expensive endeavor. Begin with the basics:

Commit: Effective community engagement demands organizational commitment. The inability to pursue it without external funding is evidence of a lack of commitment.

Act: Exhaust the possibilities of re-imagining and partnering on current work in ways that address the interests of communities around you.

Plan/Partner: Develop relationships with communities and explore mutual interests as a basis for project development.

Achieve Small Wins: Implement small projects to demonstrate to your organization, your communities, and to potential funders your commitment and capacity.

After this you will be ready to pursue external sources of money.

Typical arts funders fund the arts that they typically fund. (That’s a purposely circular statement.) Often, community engagement is not part of their mandate. They can be won over on the basis of expanding access and improving an arts organization’s viability, but that can involve a long-term funder education project. Perhaps there are better ways to spend your time?

Funding for community engagement often comes from sources that do not traditionally fund the arts. Their interests are those of the communities with which you will be working.

Success in seeking funds depends on your credibility. The “small wins” above go a long way toward demonstrating that.

Learn what funders are concerned with the issues that are of interest to the communities with which you are partnering. Approach these partners with your partner communities.

Granted there is at least a little hyperbole in some of the above, but the essence of it all is true. And I know nothing in the arts is easy. This is especially true of community engagement. It is new to many of us and is about dealing with people with whom we are not familiar; it can be intimidating and messy. But we owe it to the future of our organizations and the well-being of our communities to enter into this work.

Today we use a song by Paul Simon as our text. If you don’t know “Wristband” go ahead and watch/listen. We’ll wait for you to come back. (If you want, skip ahead to 18 seconds in.) But pay particular attention to the “message” verse about 2/3 of the way through.

The riots started slowly with the homeless and the lowlyThen they spread into the heartland towns that never get a wristbandKids that can’t afford the cool brand whose anger is a short-handFor you’ll never get a wristband and if you don’t have a wristband then you can’t get through the door

I don’t think I need to add too much to this. For much of the population of the U.S., the nonprofit arts industry is at the epicenter of a world of wristbands. To them, if any of us don’t have a wristband for access to whatever it is we want, we know where and how to get one . . . easily. You may disagree. But it’s the image many people conjure up when they think of the work we present, when they think of it at all, and relatively speaking they are not wrong.

No wonder it can be difficult to gain their attention, much less their trust. But gain it we must. For the sake of our industry’s future and, I think we would all argue, for the well-being of our communities.

Join us in welcoming Achia Floyd to ArtsEngaged. Here she introduces herself in her own words:

I believe in the transformative power of the arts, and I truly believe Community Engagement is a respectful way to push arts and cultural organizations toward a sustainable future. Accordingly, I jumped at the chance to promote Community Engagement for ArtsEngaged.

Who am I?

My name is Achia Floyd, and I have been a classical musician since 3 years of age. I hold a BM and MM degree in flute performance, as well as a MA degree in Arts Administration. Shortly after exiting graduate school, I began The Willow Company, an Arts Consulting agency focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, as well as Social Media marketing.

What do I do for ArtsEngaged?

I lead Marketing and Sales for ArtsEngaged, which means I am the person behind the scenes on Social Media, the Newsletter, and sales efforts. On that note, be sure to open the next AE Newsletter, and join the new Community Engagement Network group on Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/groups/668362663522307/

My mission is to spread the word about the greatness of Community-focused Engagement. Do you have a success story to share, have general news to share, or want to be featured in an Arts Engaged Newsletter? Want to learn more about Community Engagement Training? Need Community Engagement Resources? Email info@artsengaged.com.

I hope we can work together to build community, not audiences.

Achia Floyd

]]>5390Needs of the Fieldhttp://www.artsjournal.com/engage/2018/10/the-state-of-engagement-2/
Wed, 10 Oct 2018 06:00:26 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/engage/?p=5411Last time (The State of Engagement) I shared some thoughts about the status of community engagement in the nonprofit arts industry. Today I want to offer a few observations about the needs of our field with respect to community engagement. Before I begin I want to be clear that this does not purport to be an exhaustive list but simply some of the things that are most on my mind right now.

Understanding/Awareness
There is a great need for more universal understanding of basic concepts in the means by which arts organizations and the public connect; and by universal, I mean all of our internal stakeholders: artistic staff, administrative staff, and board members. I have written extensively on the need to better understand and differentiate among audience development, audience engagement, and community engagement. The unfortunate conflating of the three creates confusion and inhibits success in any one of them. With respect to community engagement there is little awareness of its potential, principles, and practice. Without significant growth in this area, real change will be extremely limited.

Advocacy for Community EngagementWhile it might be hoped that simple understanding and awareness would generate change, the inertial forces in our industry make that unlikely. So, there needs to be a concerted effort to press arts organizations to deeper commitments to their communities. We need to utilize both carrots and sticks–the carrot of broadly perceived indispensability (wouldn’t that be cool!) and the stick of impending obsolescence.

Trained PractitionersThe skills necessary for successful work in community engagement have not been part of the training or experience of most in our field. Opportunities for training, sharing, and mentoring need to expanded.

Mission-level Organizational CommitmentAs awareness and understanding lead to support for community engagement, organizations need to make their commitment to it a mission-level priority, not an add-on or afterthought. Otherwise, communities will see the limited efforts for what they are–window dressing. This need not be a commitment that excludes an arts mission but is added in parallel to it or, better, as a more accurate understanding of what an arts mission actually should be: connecting people with art.

Organizational TransformationOnce the commitment is made, the hard work of transforming the organization from an artcentric to a community-oriented focus must take place. Initially, simple changes in our habits of mind will go a long way in supporting the process. Eventually, though,if an organization is not doing anything differently as a result of its engagement efforts, it’s not focused on the community.

I said at the beginning of my last post that these musings were the result of trying to assess the future of this blog and of ArtsEngaged. I’m clear that there is still much work that needs to be done. We will continue to support all of the points above. But this work must grow. To that end we are creating a network of community engagement practitioners and advocates. For now, it lives as a Facebook group: Become Indispensable. If this work is meaningful to you, join us and invite colleagues to participate as well. (If you are Facebook averse–and we understand that–emails us at CEN@artsengaged.com and we’ll be sure to include you in the festivities.) In addition, ArtsEngaged continues to offer Community Engagement Training to individuals and groups.

One last word. With respect to organizational transformation, I have been pleased to read of the work of Of/By/For All, a movement to assist organizations that have made a substantive commitment to their communities. While it may not be for all organizations–the level of community focus they advocate may be a bit much for some arts organizations, at least at first–it does appear to be a great resource for implementing effective community engagement work.

]]>5411The State of Engagementhttp://www.artsjournal.com/engage/2018/10/the-state-of-engagement/
http://www.artsjournal.com/engage/2018/10/the-state-of-engagement/#commentsWed, 03 Oct 2018 06:00:38 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/engage/?p=5402As I consider the future of ArtsEngaged and of my own role in the community engagement arena I am, of necessity, thinking about the status of community engagement in the nonprofit arts industry. If most (or even many) arts organizations were on a clear path to substantive community engagement there would be no need for training in and advocacy for community engagement. I’d be really (really, really) happy to ride off into the sunset. But from my direct observation and from the reports of many in the field (usually from younger people in junior level arts organization positions) we’re not there yet. For too many arts organizations, their level of self-focus apparently makes understanding that effective community engagement is something substantially different from traditional sales/marketing/fundraising/education approaches nearly impossible.

To be clear, effective community engagement is the building of mutually beneficial relationships with new populations out of which grows arts programming that addresses the interests of those populations. This demands humility about how little we know about communities with which we have no relationship, respectful listening to learn, and a willingness to view and employ our art as a means of making lives better–better in ways understood by those communities, not in ways that we paternalistically assume. And it must be relationships with new populations because our reach is simply not great enough to support our work as we look to the future.

Across the field there are certainly many areas of good news. There are the arts organizations that practice effective engagement out of simply necessity. These are rural, neighborhood, and, sometimes, culturally specific organizations whose base population is small enough that they have to (and can) know their members fairly well. There are also the organizations whose mission is some form of social justice work utilizing the arts. Justice cannot be pursued without understanding the nature of injustice and its impact on individuals. Conversations have to happen.

Even among medium-size and large arts organizations with arts missions rooted in the European aristocratic tradition there are those that have made substantial, organization-wide mission-based commitments to their communities (Milwaukee Repertory Theater for one); others with significant programming or project-based commitments to their communities (Houston Grand Opera’s HGOco is but one); and still others that have hired a C-suite level (CEO, COO, CFO, etc.) officer to oversee relationship building processes and the resultant programming initiatives and have given them the mandate and resources to be successful. I believe the Queens Museum of Art falls in this category.

Unfortunately, there are many (I would unscientifically call it a vast majority) that have no interest in engagement, pay it lip service, or call things that they are doing “engagement” when they clearly do not use the means or serve the necessary ends (expanding reach) of effective engagement.The common thread among these is a prime or exclusive focus on benefits to the arts organization and a level of artcentricity (seeing the art, rather than the interaction between people and that art, as primary) that gets in the way building relationships. A few examples of what I mean are given below. This is by no means an exhaustive listing.

Marketing/sales efforts that see new communities primarily as potential consumers for the existing “product” or as bait for grant money

“Outreach” efforts that are a response to funder interests. (Plus, outreach implies that the outreacher is central and people need to come to it. It also smacks of paternalism. That’s not a good basis for relationship building.)

Calling these things engagement does nothing to address the systemic challenge we face: the need to be seen as valuable by vastly larger percentages of the population. If, like me, you believe that effective engagement is critical to the future of the arts in our country, you understand that there is much, much more that needs to be done.

]]>http://www.artsjournal.com/engage/2018/10/the-state-of-engagement/feed/25402Targets and Timeframeshttp://www.artsjournal.com/engage/2018/09/targets-and-timeframes/
Wed, 26 Sep 2018 06:00:16 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/engage/?p=5396I have recently found myself concerned with issues related to measuring community engagement, particularly its benefits to arts organizations. (Two-Phase Engagement; Reach and Frequency) There is a tendency among some to know that community engagement is a good thing and, therefore, to resist attempts to measure it’s impact. If I’m honest, I may sometimes find myself in that group. There are others who assume that community engagement is at best “nice” and are dismissive of its potential to yield practical benefits for the organization.

To be sustainable, community engagement must benefit the arts organization in tangible ways. To be supported institutionally, the path to ticket sales (via increased reach), funding (via money from donors, corporations, and foundations who will never support the arts status quo), and public policy (via broad-based public enthusiasm for the impact of the arts on people’s lives) must be articulated and tracked.

A principal difficulty in this is that in order to accomplish these gains we must do work in marketing, funding, and advocacy that we’ve almost never done before. That is, we must lay groundwork among people who are not already pre-disposed to value the arts. (If you believe that a viable future for arts organizations exists without reaching new communities and new funders you may stop reading now.)

As I have pointed out on numerous occasions, immediate improvements in sales, funding, and public policy are impossible when you are approaching new people who are either apathetic about or hostile to the arts. First, we must build trust and, while doing so, measure indicators of improving relationships–for example, willingness to meet, willingness to introduce others, and (eventually) willingness to work together. Clearly, that is at least a one- or two-year project. Only after the foundation is built can we begin to set goals for the more traditional measures of institutional benefit.

Don’t have the resources to devote to this? What’s your alternative? Let’s reconvene in forty years and see who is still in business.